Specific Features of the Current China and the USA Policy towards the South China Sea Issue

This work is devoted to the specific features of the current China and the USA policy towards the South China Sea Issue. The territorial dispute in the SCS used to be only a conflict of interests between China and several ASEAN countries, however at the current stage the problem is moving to a global level, and a number of China’s opponents are hoping for the internationalization of the conflict and the US involvement in resolving it. With the shift of the balance of power to the APR, the United States attempt to retain global leadership through its influence on the escalation of the conflict in the South China Sea. The state of affairs is getting more complicated by the economic interconnectedness of the Southeast Asian countries with the PRC and the USA with the PRC and the presence of traditional and non-traditional security threats within the framework of the SCS issue. Particular attention is also paid to the legal aspects of the SCS issue. The work analyses the current state of the problem and the main factors that can have influence on the policies of states and possible ways of further developing of the problem of the SCS. Key words: South China Sea, China, USA, ASEAN, artificial islands, piracy, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands.